Scorpion's Sting

<p>The image of a scorpion surrounded by a ring of fire stinging itself to death was widespread among antislavery leaders before the Civil War. It captures their long-standing strategy for peaceful abolition: they would surround the slave states with a cordon of freedom constricting slavery and inducing the social crisis in which the peculiar institution would die. The image opens a fresh perspective on antislavery and the coming of the Civil War brilliantly explored here by one of our greatest historians of the period.</p>